Notes for remarks by
Rt. Hon. Perry Christie MP
Prime Minister
Progressive Liberal Party Leader
PLP Rally in Pinewood Park
20th February, 2007
You know, I heard those other fellows are having a meeting tonight down the road.
I was surprised. Especially when we heard them say
that they wouldn’t have any more meetings in Nassau until after Lent.
They can’t even keep that promise.
I give one little radio interview and they change their
whole campaign strategy.
They scared. They are in pure panic mode.
The real reason that they’re having a meeting tonight is because they don’t want FNMs coming out to join us. They don’t want FNMs to hear what we have to say tonight, because they know that tonight we will expose the hypocrisy of the FNM.
Now, you know Ingraham says that he saw me in the newspaper and said I looked angry.
Hell yes, I am dead vex! I’m vexed when I see good people like King Eric and Shane’s mother and his wife and his children being dragged through the mud just so some ‘has been and wanna be again prime minister’ could spin his vicious, wicked strategy to fool the Bahamian people regardless of the cost in human suffering.
It offends the moral sense of decent Bahamians everywhere
and yes, it makes me vex.
The other thing someone told me is that he not only talked
about how my face looked, but he said that I must be confused...
Now, I have already said that it ain’t my fault that he has two left feet and he can’t dance; but now he’s trying to compare how I look and how he looks!
Well, I’ve never said anything about how Hubert Ingraham looks, but let’s be honest – he really don’t want to talk about looks... He really don’t want to go there!
And confused? This is the man who asks you to trust him when he breached a most fundamental commitment that he made to the Bahamian people.
He was introducing a new culture, he said; a new commitment to serve only two terms or ten years as prime minister and how he was going to abide by that because “not only Pindling Ma could born prime minister”. That’s what he said.
Instead he put Tommy Turnquest there until such time as he thought people had forgotten his commitment then he cut Tommy’s political throat.
And still he asks the Bahamian people to trust him.
He came back because there is a hidden force who insisted.
He came back because he couldn’t tell them no.
That is the only explanation for why this man, having promised so faithfully the Bahamian people that he would give opportunities for others to lead; that is the only reason that he would come back. An irresistible hidden force.
I am not talking about the Bahamian people. I am talking about a group who is making their last stand to control us.
It will be a cold day in hell before that happens. That fight is bigger than me and bigger than the PLP. It is a hidden force that should bring all progressive people together in unity to stop them in their tracks.
Hubert Ingraham said I told an absolute lie on him. I wonder if he remembers the absolute lie he told to me, when for the first time in 12 years, he came to my house to visit me while I was recovering from my illness.
He looked me right in my face and told me that he would never run for prime minister again.
He went to great lengths to try to impress upon me the sincerity of that statement.
I will always remember that day because that was the day that Mrs. Kenris Carey, president of the Methodist Church and Rev. Adam Brown from Exuma also came to visit me and met him at the house.
Mrs. Carey prayed, as we stood together holding hands as brothers; one to the other. And she prayed for us both. Me as a recovering prime minister and him as a retired prime minister.
He lied to me. He lied to Tommy. He lied to Dion. And the rest is history.
The hidden forces that urged him to come back had obviously decided that Tommy could not win. They came to a conclusion that the only way the FNM could win is to bring Hubert back.
I know he resisted; and resisted. But the hidden force is strong; and it is rich. That is why he could now with such great confidence say that no one is going to outspend him this time.
I never thought that he would brag about the money that
the hidden force have given him and the FNM.
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When we came to office in 2002, we came with a plan to transform the Commonwealth of The Bahamas into the best little country in the world.
A country where all of our citizens, black and white, would be able to live in peace and harmony.
A country where Bahamians would be empowered in large numbers, not just by the new jobs we create, but by the opportunity to expand their businesses and to create new businesses.
A country where my Government would do more than just build roads and schools but build, hope, values and patriotism.
Where people would love their country so much that they would directly involve themselves to ensure that we stood out as a shining example in our commitment to good behaviour; one to the other.
We believe that by any standard the transformation we set out to achieve is well on its way.
We know that we do not live in a perfect world; a perfect
country. And that is why we will continue to work relentlessly for
the maximum protection of our people and our way of life.
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This evening I want to recognize my brother Shane and his family and to again express my deepest regret for their suffering and persecution.
I came out here tonight to set the record straight and to share the truth about this thing they call fast tracking.
Mr. Ingraham has taken Shane Gibson to task for AND I QUOTE: “exercising bad judgment when he proposed (Anna Nicole) Smith for the privileged status of a permanent resident of The Bahamas because he must have been aware of her notoriety. She was not a suitable person to be given permanent resident of The Bahamas in any circumstances”.
That’s what Hubert Ingraham had to say at his news conference yesterday.
Well, I said on radio on Sunday evening and I say again tonight that I have now adopted a policy of zero tolerance on the FNM’s wicked lies and double standards.
We ain’t takin’ last; no more!
The Bahamian people have a right to know when a would-be leader is not playing with a straight deck or are taking out of both sides of their mouth.
And when you look at the FNM’s record, you will see at once how readily the FNM fast-tracked the Permanent Residence and/or investment applications of persons who either were – or turned out to be – known crooks, fraudsters, gangsters, and, worst of all, known pedophiles.
And for those of you who don’t know what a pedophile is, it’s a person who has sex with little children.
And yet Hubert Ingraham fast-tracked and approved the investment application of a man who had a well-known history of grave sexual assault against little boys.
Did Hubert Ingraham know the history of this man? He most certainly did. He personally knew all about this man’s repeat sex-offending history.
Now let make it clear, this ’aint what I hear. This is what I know.
And I know that Hubert Alexander Ingraham knew what a sex offender of little boys this man was – Hubert Ingraham knew all about this.
But what did he and his Government do? They welcomed him with open arms; that’s what they did. They fast-tracked his application to invest in The Bahamas. They knowingly allowed that kind of repeat sex-offender to come and go as he pleased.
And this is the same Hubert Ingraham who now has the nerve to fix his mouth and talk about morality in high places.
This is the same man who has the gall to hold himself up as an example of a leader who safeguards The Bahamas against persons of bad character and reputation.
This is the same man who is trying to deceive the Bahamian people into thinking that he applied a high standard to the granting of approvals to foreigners.
What a complete hypocrite this man has now revealed himself to be! Who does he think he’s fooling?
Say what you like about the late Anna Nicole Smith as someone who could be allowed as a resident of The Bahamas, I’ll tell you one thing: nothing she ever did in life could possibly have been worse than a man who for years was sexually assaulting little boys before being made welcome into The Bahamas by the Ingraham government.
And don’t think that is the only case of slackness under Hubert Ingraham and his government when it came to using the powers of the state to fix up disreputable and discredited persons from abroad.
Do you want to hear some more?
There’s another man – this time from New Zealand – by the name of Derek Guise Turner. Do you know where he is now?
He’s in jail in the United States, that’s where. He pleaded guilty and just last year was sentenced to 20 years in prison for fraud, for ripping off a whole bunch of people of millions and millions of dollars.
But guess what? This same Derek Turner came to The Bahamas under the FNM, under Hubert Ingraham’s government. They knew or ought to have known all about him when he came to The Bahamas because Derek Turner was already big news in Australia.
He was big news there in Australia because he had already been found guilty of violating the securities laws of that country.
But did that bother Mr. Ingraham? Not in the slightest! Instead, he welcomed him with open arms. More specifically, he and his government fast-tracked his application for Permanent Residence. Handed it to him on a silver platter. This thief, this con-artist, this swindler. He was bosom-buddies and a great friend of the FNM.
But there’s more… plenty more.
As for the argument that we fast tracked Anna Nicole Smith... let’s examine what fast tracking was like under the FNM. Let me give you an example...
There’s another fella by the name of Martin Joseph Henry Tremblay. Do you know where he is? He’s in jail in the U.S. too. You know why he’s in jail? He’s in jail for trying to launder one billion dollars in drug-trafficking proceeds in 2005.
Now, do you want to know what the fast-tracking of permanent residence applications under the FNM was all about?
Well this same Martin Tremblay could tell you but he’s all locked up in jail, so I’ll tell you.
He came to The Bahamas on the 8th April, 1994. And you know who was in power then. Follow me now. He came to The Bahamas on the 8th April, 1994.
He applied for Permanent Residence with-the-right-to-work on the 20th April, 1994. In other words, 12 days after he got here, he applied for Permanent Residence.
Now here’s the part: this man applied for Permanent Residence on the 20th April, 1994 and was granted Permanent Residence on the 10th May, 1994.
In other words, his application was fast-tracked at break-neck speed.
For the record, Ingraham and his cabinet gave Tremblay Permanent Residence in less than three weeks.
That was quicker than it took for Anna Nicole Smith to get hers. Talk about double-standards! What rank hypocrisy! What a hypocrite Hubert Ingraham is.
I should add that when this same Martin Tremblay applied for Citizenship under my Government, his application was turned down.
I’ll tell you something else about how the Ingraham Government dealt with Martin Tremblay.
The FNM agreed to give Tremblay Permanent Residence even though he hadn’t even bought a home yet!
And then there’s another great pal of the FNM, and his name is Viktor Kozeny.
Now, I’m not going to say very much about this particular case.
I’m not going to say very much because Viktor Kozeny at this moment is up in Fox Hill prison fighting extradition.
So I don’t want to say anything that may in any way prejudice what is before the courts.
So all I will say tonight is that this man, Viktor Kozeny, was awarded Permanent Residence in 1995 by Hubert Ingraham and his government.
And they granted him Permanent Residence despite the fact that there was damaging international publicity about him in the Wall Street Journal and other publications around the world concerning his activities in the Czech Republic and elsewhere.
This bad publicity, however, did not seem to bother Mr. Ingraham in the slightest. Instead, they welcomed him with open arms. They fixed him right up. And they granted Kozeny Permanent Residence.
Yet another example of Mr. Ingraham’s brazen hypocrisy and how he talks out of both sides of his mouth.
Now, I could go on and on but like they say you got to talk some, and you got to save some. So that’s all I’ll say tonight to expose the double-standards, the lying, and the hypocrisy of Hubert Ingraham.
But before I go, did you see how strongly Hubert Ingraham defended the allegations against Dion Foulkes and Tommy Turnquest, but said not one word about Brent Symonette?
Mind you, this is the man who would become your prime minister if the FNM won - God forbid – and something were to happen to Hubert Ingraham.
As you would recall, something happened to me and Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt became acting prime minister.
Does Hubert Ingraham’s silence in Brent Symonette’s defence mean that Symonette cannot be defended? His case is so bad that it is indefensible.